I know I am supposed to be ignoring these fact-checking clowns, but Kessler is driving me insane. He has all the facts staring him right in the face, but he just refuses to believe them. What he is doing is the equivalent of Broderistic Birtherism. Like the birthers, Glenn has all the documents in front of him, notarized and legitimate, and he just refuses to accept them at face value.

So let’s put together a list of things that Glenn Kessler has to willingly and willfully ignore to come to the conclusion that Romney was not a part of Bain from 1999-2002. If I miss anything, toss it in the comments and I will add it to the list.

***

1.) The multiple SEC filings, including this 2000 document, signed by Romney himself, in which he states that he is the sole stockholder of Bain Capital.

2.) The former SEC official who discussed the filings. That’s easy for our nonpartisan hack to ignore, as he deftly pushes her comments aside:

3.) Mitt Romney’s own testimony:

Romney has consistently insisted that he was too busy organizing the 2002 Winter Olympics to take part in Bain business between 1999 and that event. But in the testimony, which was provided to The Huffington Post, Romney noted that he regularly traveled back to Massachusetts. “[T]here were a number of social trips and business trips that brought me back to Massachusetts, board meetings, Thanksgiving and so forth,” he said.

Romney’s sworn testimony was given as part of a hearing to determine whether he had sufficient residency status in Massachusetts to run for governor.

Romney testified that he “remained on the board of the Staples Corporation and Marriott International, the LifeLike Corporation” at the time.

Yet in the Aug. 12, 2011, federal disclosure form filed as part of his presidential bid, he said, “Mr. Romney retired from Bain Capital on February 11, 1999 to head the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. Since February 11, 1999, Mr. Romney has not had any active role with any Bain Capital entity and has not been involved in the operations of any Bain Capital entity in any way.”

***

His activities during that period also included Staples board meetings: “I returned for most of those meetings. Others I attended by telephone if I could not return.”

Bain was involved with Staples early in its life, taking the company public in 1989. Romney used his Bain position to obtain a seat on the board, which he held into 2002. He regularly cites the jobs that Staples created as reflecting positively on Bain’s record.

4.) A 2001 SEC filing in which Romney is described as “the sole shareholder, sole director, Chief Executive Officer and President of Bain Investors VI and thus is the controlling person of Bain
Investors VI.”

I’m sure there is much more I am missing, but at this point, I’d have more respect for Kessler if, instead of another excuse-making column, he would just cover his eyes, plug his ears, and shout “I CAN’T HEAR YOU I CAN’T HEAR YOU” like a four year old.

And another thing. If Romney wasn’t the CEO for those three years, who was? Shouldn’t someone be coming forward to say they were in charge, not Mitt. Wouldn’t there be minutes from a board meeting detailing the line of succession? How about a mass email sent out to everyone at Bain congratulating the new CEO like you would get at every other company in America? These are arrogant fuckers, surely there has to be one Bain brochure with the new non-Mitt CEO standing in front of his office. Surely Bain must have an investor newsletter that would tell investors that Romney was out in 1999 and the new CEO was in charge. Where is all that stuff?

https://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/balloon_juice_header_logo_grey.jpg00John Colehttps://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/balloon_juice_header_logo_grey.jpgJohn Cole2012-07-13 18:15:442012-07-13 18:23:13A Partial List of Things You Need to Ignore In Order to Be Glenn Kessler

And another thing. If Romney wasn’t the CEO for those three years, who was? Shouldn’t someone be coming forward to say they were in charge, not Mitt. Wouldn’t there be minutes from a board meeting detailing the line of succession? How about a mass email sent out to everyone at Bain congratulating the new CEO like you would get at every other company in America?

Like the one Apple put out, saying Tim Cook was taking over for Steve Jobs during Jobs’ medical leave?

slightly O/T but Romney massive fail on CNN answering the questions tonight. Smiling all the way like the joker, answering “1999” after every question (not being pressed hard mind you). Goes after Obama teams methods, thinks he’s owed an apology. Will only release 2010&11 tax returns. Good luck with that. Seriously, he just repeated what he’s been saying all along I don’t see how this stops the fire.

@Walker: He’s not very good at this, is he. So far, he’s doubling down on easily disproven lies, he’s doubling down on his refusal to make his tax returns public, and he’s doubling down on the whining.

OT, but the Condi Rice trial balloon was apparently not well taken by the wingnut base. I think Mitt is learning that you really can’t buy love.

According to ABC news and via LGF (sorry; on the FYiPad and can’t link), Romney is only doubling down on the I-left-Bain-in-1999-and-Obama-should-apologize bullshit on his network tour, and simply ignoring questions. I need to see more info to make a better judgment, but so far I don’t see this going well at all — it’s really giving me flashbacks to Richard Nixon now.

If Kessler comes out and says, “My bad, Cole and others were right,” he looks foolish to everybody. If he sticks to his guns he looks foolish… to the people who are calling him a fool, which ain’t everybody.

Don’t forget at least six other filings he signed in connection with Bain acquisitions during the period he allegedly wasn’t involved with Bain. And that he sat on the board of at least one Bain entity.

Just finished watching the CNN interview with Rmoney. The key questions regarding the written proof that he was still a key player at Bain post 1999 were never asked. He was, however, allowed to make a campaign speech. Fuck CNN. But you knew that.

OT: There’s a very surprised distant semi-relative who sent me one of those crap sensitive e-mails about what some brain dead historian thinks and a hand-wrenching manner. There are little bits of chewed Rommbot economic character littering the intertubze between my house and hers. Sorry if I clogged the net.

Kessler seems to be hanging his hat on the idea that being CEO, president, and sole shareholder is just a nominal thing and doesn’t reflect hands-on operational control, which he thinks has to be established in order to pin blame on said CEO/pres/etc. And, to a lesser degree, that since he (Kessler) is an expert on business and finance, this kind of thing is just the way business is done, and not knowing that exposes any vocal critic to be either naive or disingenuous. And, what’s more, almost the entire pundit set has closed ranks to validate both of those notions in order to poo-poo the story. It has succeeded in demonstrating quite well what Bob Somerby, before he went all Rain Man on us, used to call “Millionaire Pundit Values.”

If he is going to get away with just releasing two years tax returns then there is no sanity in this world. This needs to be hammered home every damn day. He is hiding something, we know it, and he knows it.

And another thing. If Romney wasn’t the CEO for those three years, who was?

That’s what I’m wondering. What kind of big-time private equity firm remains ghost-run for three years? You’re telling investors/clients/the SEC that X is running the company, but in reality he actually bailed a couple years earlier and has no hands-on involvement anymore? What company does that kind of thing? Anyone with more experience in the corporate world ever come across this kind of boardroom shell game before?

A comment earlier today from Tonal Crow indicated it might be time to break out the Lear.

He went to run with some with some fibs, he did,
With some fibs he went to run:
With spite of all his friends could say,
On a summer’s morn, on a slow news day,
With some fibs he went to run!
And when the fibs turned round and round,
And every one cried, ‘You’ll soon be drowned!’
He called aloud, ‘My fibs ain’t big,
Voters won’t care a button! News won’t care a fig!
With some fibs I’ll go to run!’
poor and hard, poor and hard,
Are the lives that old Romney’s shun;
his eyes are blank, and his word’s not frank,
And he went to run with some fibs.

Romney will speak from Laconia, New Hampshire with reporters for CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox News and CNN Friday afternoon, with each segment possibly airing as soon as that night’s broadcast, the Romney campaign confirmed to TPM.

Excerpt from CNN/Romney Interview Transcript, 7/13/2012:

Anderson Cooper: Governor Romney, in Bain’s SEC filings from 1999 to 2002, you are listed as Bain’s CEO. But your FEC filings say you had no material interaction with Bain after 1999. Both sets of documents are under pain of perjury, and some have claimed that the contradiction between the two leaves you open to federal felony charges. How do you respond?
__Mitt Romney: Anderson, there’s no crime here. Yes, I was pro forma CEO of Bain until 2002, and received a token salary for the use of my name on the letterhead until Bain completed its search for a new CEO, but that’s it. I had no real interactions with them, I was just a temporary figurehead.
__
The money I earned from Bain in those three years was a pittance. If you divide it by all the poor people I intend to help as president … DIVISION BY ZERO ERROR CRASH CRASH AIEEEEEE [the room fills with an ungodly screech, the sound of two billion transistors suddenly halting, Governor Romney’s head pops off, tears across the room like a bowling ball-sized champagne cork, body spasticallly flails, white viscous fluid spews forth from the gaping hole between his shoulders where wires and twitching polymers poke through].
__Anderson Cooper: [hands over ears, screams] My god, he’s a fucking android! Someone stop that hideous sound!
__
[Cut to placard.]
__Placard: CNN is currently experiencing technical difficulties. We apologize for the inconvenience.

It appears the President has made a comment..This is from politicalwire..

Said Obama: “Well, here’s what I know, we were just talking about responsibility and as president of the United States, it’s pretty clear to me that I’m responsible for folks who are working in the federal government and you know, Harry Truman said the buck stops with you.”………………..
“Now, my understanding is that Mr. Romney attested to the SEC, multiple times, that he was the chairman, CEO and president of Bain Capital and I think most Americans figure if you are the chairman, CEO and president of a company that you are responsible for what that company does.”

@beltane: I’m telling you, the MSM is smelling blood in the water and scandal. A scandal is much better for ratings than this anemic horse race they’ve got at the moment. If the scandal means convention chaos, so much the better.

They’re going to follow this story now. They’re just getting started. The fact that Mitt is doubling down and full of weak sauce is only going to make them dig further.

NBC is doing a good job so far..
How can you claim jobs but not losses
How can you give McCain twenty three years but only one so far
Obama’s reaction
Now David Gregory.. The President doesn’t want to talk about jobs.. yadda yadda yadda

edit..not a steno person.. jobs gained but not lost
mccain..tax returns
david gregory ..asshole

Nothing will ever deter the serious media from taking any stance other than “some say…others say, so there’s no way to know”.

I think the best way forward is to push for reporters to start asking Mitt why he was making six figures plus for doing nothing year after year. And, asking if Bain still has that policy in place. I for one haven’t done dick for them since 1999, and would love to have my $1.3 million they hence owe me for services not rendered.

@Narcissus: Agreed. That NBC report was pathetic. But this is precisely what the MSM is trying to do, and it will succeed. As I said a couple of days ago, by the end of July this will be a complete non-story.

@Jim: The media is slow. They’re still invested in the horse race, not to mention they’re corporations and are friends with Romney’s friends and so forth. But they live on ratings and if a scandal can deliver them, they’ll be on that. Things are only getting started.

@Violet:
I agree Violet this is just the tip of the iceberg and regardless of the fact that they didn’t press hard he didn’t answer the questions with anything new. This does not put out the fire. They will stretch this out for sure…

@Joseph Nobles: Bain Capital is an investment firm. I suspect Cole wasn’t talking about shareholders in Bain Capital (at the time, Romney was the only shareholder) but about the investors they work for.

@jl: Nobody’s asking the obvious questions. A lot of times when a prominent CEO retires, he/she will announce that they’re stepping down by such-and-such a date, signalling that the company will be searching for a replacement and transitioning during that time, etc. I’ve never heard of an executive essentially “secretly” retiring, claiming on SEC filings to be the CEO, and then — for clearly cynical political reasons — later claiming that he was actually out the entire time.

Mitt Romney doesn’t deny he invested in companies that outsourced jobs to Mexico and China.
__
Doesn’t deny that he made a fortune when it happened.
__
Romney only says that there’s “no evidence” that he was in charge at that point.
__
But newly disclosed documents show that Romney was ‘sole stockholder, CEO and Chairman’ when jobs were shipped overseas.
__
Here’s the evidence, Mr. Romney.
__
Your turn to explain.

@JPL: So basically, the Buck doesn’t stop at him, he’s only releasing the 2 years of tax buck info and then there are all his undisclosed location overseas foreign bucks that are none of anyone’s beezwax. (deer deer, it’s almost as though his hart isn’t in this campaigning thing, scusi.) That’s our Buckaroo Bonanza although I somehow don’t think the rodeo is over, OBambi should keep sticking quarters in.

So the media blitz was to repeat again and again the same line they have taken all along and then whine about an apology? And also–horrid optics with him in some house looking all tan and plutocratic. Like, why do I have to bother?

I also thought the ‘Obama has to get these people under control’ line was very ugly. And as always–projection. Because he always called out his asshole supporters when they called Obama a Kenyan right? (not that Obama has done anything like that or his team has)

Delong and Cole are referencing Kessler’s insistence on Twitter that the Globe should have been forthcoming about the party affiliation and political donations of Roberta Karmel, the former SEC commissioner the Globe quoted in its article on Romney’s tenure at Bain.

In his post today, Kessler also consulted “securities law experts, with many years of experience”. Yet nowhere in his post did Kessler bother to disclose the party affiliation of or political donations made by the “securities law experts” he consulted. Someone should ask him why his standard of disclosure applies to the “securities law experts” that the Boston Globe consults, but not to the “securities law experts” that he consults. I guess once one declares himself “fact-checker” he is absolved of any and all charges of hypocrisy.

I’ve never heard of an executive essentially “secretly” retiring, claiming on SEC filings to be the CEO, and then—for clearly cynical political reasons—later claiming that he was actually out the entire time.

And backdating his retirement three years. Don’t forget that.

Clearly, even if he was absentee boss (with fiducial responsibility) there was value in keeping his name at the top of the corporate pyramid — more like corporate obelisk, because Bain Capital was Mittens and Mittens was Bain Capital. But again, we go back to the point about leadership: either you’re in charge or you’re not.

@JPL: Great statement from Obama. The Romney campaign is trying a classic bullshit defense — “we can make stuff up with less effort than it takes you to debunk it.”

Debunking is still useful, but the way to cut through it is to say, “you can throw up all the excuses you like, but that doesn’t change the central point.” (The “were you lying then, or are you lying now?” is cleverly only implied.)

@Violet: A scandal may or may not provide better ratings, but it involves having to do actual work. A horse race is a story you can phone in from the beach. You’re stuck in the 1970’s. None of those talking heads could be bothered to wade through SEC filings, corporate charters, trace shell companies, all that stuff, and GE/Disney/NewsCorp certainly won’t give them the budget for that.

Nobody gives a shit anyway. I bet three times as many people know about Tom and Katie’s divorce as have even heard the name “Bain.”

Based on my 15 years in the institutional equities business, if any company CEO basically stated that, for a three-year period, no one, in effect, was running his company, that management would get laughed out the door — and the financial analyst suggesting coverage of the company would get his ass thrown out the door immediately afterward. Kessler is embarrassing himself in front of everyone who has the least bit of knowledge regarding how businesses operate.

Also too, as I’ve said before, Romney is doing himself no favors bitching about “Chicago-style politics” when, according to his own admission, he’s the ghost employee on the payroll, pocketing a paycheck for nothing.

It seems Mitt is mad. “My goodness, it’s beneath the office of President to make such accusations!” Mitt was nearly snarling while rictus-smiling on CBS.

This is a repeated trope of Mitt’s, and I have to presume that it’s him and not his campaign media people who are responsible, because I just can’t imagine any professional believing that “how dare you?” is an effective response.

@jl:When no one is delegated to take over the responsibility for running the Bain hamster wheel, it automatically devolves to the senior mail room clerk. You know, like the MR clerk at Halliburton who set up the phoney off-shore subsidiary so Halliburton could skirt US law and do bidness with Iraq and Iran.

@Violet:
I walked by the TV and heard his voice and turned it down. But I saw him, he looked angry but sneering a smile. And that retired very-white-man-tan you see on rich men who spend their time cavorting in St Lucia, just screams entitlement to my mind.

1.) The multiple SEC filings, including this 2000 document, signed by Romney himself, in which he states…

Stop right there. It doesn’t even matter what the document states. He signed the document. That alone proves that he had an active role.

Granted, signing a document isn’t much in the way of physical activity, but A) it’s more than nothing and — more importantly — B) it’s very important from a legal standpoint. Signing a document is one of the most legally significant things you can do. He was assuming legal responsibility for the contents of the document.

Clearly that belies his statement that he had no active role in Bain post 1999. He made the active choice to assume legal responsibility for the contents of the document.

If you were in Romney’s spot, you’d have to at least consider the strategy of having someone step forward and say, “I was the acting CEO and President while Mr. Romney was on his leave of absence.”

It seems from the posts as if Romney went on TV to act butch. Reviews here indicate he wasn’t too convincing. I wonder what they’re saying in RightWingLand about his performance.

Kessler’s a whore. I’ve worked in the securities litigation world longer than he has, and the extent to which he’s full of it is difficult to articulate. The idea that you need to “interpret” a factual statement in a filing is ludicrous.

I expect Mitt to treat this subject with condescension. “If you had ever worked in the private sector, mister President, you would know that a good CEO is a good delegator. My job was to trust my subordinates to handle their responsibilities, not to micromanage and babysit every decision…” blah blah blah

“Governor Romney surrounds himself with an All-Star team of former Bush Administration officials. As President, what would you delegate and trust to those under you? A war with Iran? Making sure that banks don’t get us into trouble like they did in 2008 and that we’re still recovering from? Harry Truman had a plaque on his desk that said “The Buck Stops Here.” Now that may not be true for CEOs of investment firms, but it is true of the President of the United States”.

Obama has more tact than I am, and is about a billion times smarter too; but if I can figure out how he was going to react to this, that means Romney is in WAAAAYYYY over his head.

It’s a Friday night interview, which no one will see. From all accounts, Willard just doubled-down on the same silly nonsense, meaning the story won’t end, and the media will keep digging.

So Romney, in a panic move, scheduled his first network interviews to do what exactly? He didn’t resolve anything, and his pathetic demands for an apology are laughable. What did he think these interviews would accomplish?

For the 6000th time, Willard is an awful candidate running an inept campaign.

… I’d have more respect for Kessler if, instead of another excuse-making column, he would just cover his eyes, plug his ears, and shout “I CAN’T HEAR YOU I CAN’T HEAR YOU” like a four year old.

Eventually Kessler will have to admit there’s a problem here, but, like an Iraq War dead-ender, he will insist that he believed the wrong thing for the right reasons while all of us dirty hippies believed the right thing for the wrong reasons.

I’m not sure “get bored” fits. He got elected, started planning his Presidential run immediately (actually, probably started a long time before), and he couldn’t let his Governor duties take priority, because he was running for President, for Pete’s sake!

I wish Bain would pay me $100,000 a year to not be involved with them in any way. Alternatively, I’d take some of that sweet Kaplan money for being a non-fact-checking fact-checker. I could be great at that job.

Part of the idiocy of Kessler is that we are supposed to ignore the FACTUAL statements provided by the SEC filings because they were brought up by a Democrat who is thus “biased”, meanwhile we are supposed to take the presumably “unbiased” Romney’s word for everything despite his having presented NO FACTS at all to support his current line.

Would be nice if BJ would compile all the “responses” that Romneybot 2.0 gives during the multiple interviews he gives tonight. Just saw a glimpse of him with his uncomfortable, fake, tight smile saying that he had no managerial role in Bain after 1999.

@Violet: And the going on five networks was the pulling of the plug on the respirator. Now the suits at the networks say “Hey, he showed up, he addressed the question, done, move on.” None of those networks have the stomach to have Willard mad at them, and the more team O plays it up, the more they can play the Broder card.

I thought this would be dead by the end of July, now I doubt it lives to next Friday.

@Gin & Tonic: Well, we’ll see. I think it raises more questions than it answers and the pressure for Romney to release his tax returns, plus address the discrepancy between the SEC and FEC legal documents, will increase. And we don’t know what other juicy info the Obama campaign has. They’ve been releasing it slowly and they may have more.

“I love how Romney now bases his sales pitch on having been a do-nothing president. Um, dude?”

Oh, and a thought I had: I’m the officer of a tiny LLC. We have recorded meetings at the kitchen table once a month because the law in my state requires it. If Romney was CEO (an officer) was he required to attend meetings by law? That could be argued very convincingly as an active role.

Also, just wondering if Bain statements were up on EDGAR, why is this just breaking now? Anybody could have put this together.

But it’s even worse than all of that. He’s not making a judgment that he doesn’t believe Romney was part of Bain; he’s making a judgment that it’s *lying* to suggest that he *made money* off Bain in that timeframe.
So he 1) thinks the *only* relevant question is whether Romney was personally directing the executive decision-making process — profiting as “sole shareholder” isn’t enough, and 2) doesn’t think it’s arguable that Romney might bear meaningful responsibility for a company that he was, on paper, considered the CEO of. The paperwork (which cannot be so error-ridden as to be meaningless or it’s a felony) isn’t even enough evidence to merit a finding of “reasonable people can disagree”. If you take this sworn (and all-but-sworn) evidence at face value, you’re a liar.

A false SEC filing is a potentially criminal offense; to say so is not absurd. It is true. I’m getting the feeling that Romney thinks he is above the level of accountability required in a presidential candidate or even in an ethical businessman. He is offended to be directly challenged with facts – which he still won’t address in detail. So he simply huffs and puffs and uses words like “disgusting.”

President Obama said Friday that Mitt Romney deserves to be held accountable for his work at Bain Capital during a leave of absence, and that issues surrounding the timing of his exit raise “legitimate questions.”

“It’s pretty clear to me that I’m responsible for folks who are working in the federal government and you know, Harry Truman said the buck stops with you,” Obama said in an interview with TV station WJLA.

Obama noted that Romney, despite insisting he had no input into Bain’s operations after 1999 while on leave to run the Olympics, was listed in numerous SEC filings as the firm’s top officer.

Somebody scrawl Pro-Forma President on a button, play him a quick mpg of hail to the chief and lock him into a vaguely oval-shaped room.room. Should shut him up for a bit.

JHC, it’s only July and there’s a lot of straw still to be loaded onto the camel. This is a fun one and it seems ridiculous to expect each and every strand to be the one that brings him down. This was a solid flinch.

@jonas: I’ve never heard of an executive essentially “secretly” retiring, claiming on SEC filings to be the CEO, and then—for clearly cynical political reasons—later claiming that he was actually out the entire time.”

Just look further back in Romney’s past to find Romney himself employing the same weaselly dodge. When he ran for Senator in the 90’s he distanced himself from another company’s policies the EXACT same way. It sure makes it seem more like a planned dodge mapped out in advance than some bureaucratic oversight about filing forms reporting a change of CEO.

Asked by Crawford whether he believes Mr. Obama owes him an apology for Cutter’s remarks, Romney said, “Absolutely – my goodness! What kind of president would have a campaign that says something like that about the nominee of another party?” Romney said. “This is reckless and absurd on his part, and it’s something that’s beneath his dignity.”

Shorter Romney: No fair! Obama’s attacking my strengths!

I thought, as a Mormon, that Shitty Mitty wasn’t supposed to indulge in whine.

Like the birthers, Glenn has all the documents in front of him, notarized and legitimate, and he just refuses to accept them at face value.

Maybe–like so many other prey animals–his eyes are more on the sides of his head, and rather than being adept at seeing what’s in front of him, he has a much better view of what’s stalking him from over there in the bushes?

I think the national media would like the story to die, and perhaps they will ignore it for the most part from here on out, but that doesn’t mean it won’t have legs in local markets in battleground states. The media, Republicans and many Democrats were saying the White House should lay off Romney and Bain and the WH ignored them. The campaign isn’t going to shut up about this. so the story will never be put to rest completely. A presidential candidate who won’t release his tax returns is a questionable character.

@gnomedad: Well isn’t it at least possible that as we speak (write), Kessler is serving as John Cole’s chauffeur and is doing donuts in the Walmart parking lot while repeatedly flashing his lights, honking his horn and singing “Fish Heads” at the top of his lungs? Given Kessler’s tweets, I can’t rule it out.

@Gin & Tonic: Too fatalistic my friend. The trick is to make it more interesting than Tom and Katie to the hoi polloi and if there is one thing Obama knows better than the back of his own hand it is the hoi polloi. He and his team are a joy to watch in campaign mode. Can you imagine how they are going to be kicking ass after the upcoming Convention debacle? Mitt is wading in shit up to his waist and it is rising. We shall soon see who is in over their head.

A presidential candidate who won’t release his tax returns is a questionable character.

Personally I don’t even really care about how many returns he releases now. If he does release more, he’ll studiously avoid releasing the worst ones anyway.

What I’m interested in is that he’s finally been completely fucking nailed to the wall as the goddamn degenerate liar he is. The corporate bootlickers in the media are trying to ignore it. The O team is trying their best not to let them and they need to keep at it, along with the less-mainstream outlets who broke and are covering the story.

This is much the same media that did an appallingly effective job sweeping the whole “oh shit, the Bush administration totally fucking lied about why we went to Iraq and now there’s all this smoking gun evidence of it” thing under the rug. So they’re capable of burying it. Yesterday morning I thought this could sink Romney’s candidacy as it should. Now it’s looking more like a bump in the road for him, but we’ll see.

@joes527: Romney’s whole defense, such as it is, is that he may have been listed on official paperwork as the boss, but he wasn’t the one making active decisions about where the firm invested and such. Still, it’s quite a screwy defense, because even if it stood to clear him of the charge that he himself signed off on outsourcing or whatnot, it would still open him up to a different charge that he must have been doing fuck-all in the meantime. And when his defense is that he was a president in name only, that puts a serious crack in his image as strong hand on the tiller, or, really, as someone prepared to be… President.

Still, it’s quite a screwy defense, because even if it stood to clear him of the charge that he himself signed off on outsourcing or whatnot, it would still open him up to a different charge that he must have been doing fuck-all in the meantime.

Which means that his certification that he was CEO was a material misrepresentation on a matter within the jurisdiction of a federal agency, and thus a violation of 18 USC 1001, which is a felony. Not to mention that it’s also probably securities fraud. As someone pointed out earlier, a share of Apple is worth more if it’s being run by Steve Jobs than if he’s a figurehead and it’s being run by the janitor in building 782A. Which means that someone who bought shares in any Bain-related entity under the impression that Mitt was running it paid a higher price than she would have had she known that he was a figurehead. That is recoverable damages.

@Bubblegum Tate: The Fortune article is weak sauce. They dug up some post-1999 offering memos where Romney wasn’t identified as an investment professional. But he wouldn’t necessarily be in those memos. He’s not a fund manager. He’s the CEO. (Note that no one is waving around pre-1999 marketing materials for comparison purposes.) Moreover, just because he wasn’t in some of the marketing materials doesn’t mean that Bain wasn’t holding him out as CEO. They clearly were.

And how do any of these “explanations” account for his showy “resignation” in August 2001? He didn’t say, “I resigned in February 1999.” He said, “I am resigning.”

“It’s pretty clear to me that I’m responsible for folks who are working in the federal government and you know, Harry Truman said the buck stops with you,” Obama said in an interview with TV station WJLA.

@Gin & Tonic: If what is out now is the sum total of the story you are right. I am guessing that there is more there and the Obama campaign will keep letting it drip out until it reaches critical mass.

The stench of desperation and flop sweat that is visibly emanating from the wingnuts who actually believe that piddling crap somehow puts ol’ Mitt in the clear. But, in sympathy to them, what else do they have to grasp onto here?

There will be additional “tips” to keep the story going all the way up to the GOP Convention, that’s when they drop the coup de grâce. Willard will be forced to spend his entire coronation week answering why he lies so much.

I mean, everyone is in agreement that the Obama campaign is coordinating this, right?

No one thinks that all of this is just happenstance, right?

How many days has it been since Obamacare was a top story on any news outlet?

If what is out now is the sum total of the story you are right. I am guessing that there is more there and the Obama campaign will keep letting it drip out until it reaches critical mass.

THIS.

The thing going through my head right now is that if this is what they’re willing to dribble out BEFORE the convention (when the GOP still has the option of ditching Romney), what are they holding back for after the convention?

If this actually has been coordinated via tips from the Obama team (which I would believe), I have to expect that the material they have to lay out the week of the GOP convention will be priceless.

So – let’s get this straight – being vice president is so important that he has to release 23 years worth of tax returns – being president not so much – just deserves 2 years worth of tax returns? Really?

We’ve all heard this at one point or another and we all know some rich folk that are eccentric in their own way. But the rich have a hierarchy and I’ll bet most the rich we might know are hand servants to Romney’s level rich.

Romney’s level rich really doesn’t think it should have to talk to ‘regular’ people. They shouldn’t have to explain. It’s insulting and beneath them. This whole episode of asking Romney for his tax returns and whether or not SEC documents filed are fraudulent is an outrage. They really feel that way. You can see it in Romney’s eyes.

Now Rove & the other talking heads see the problem and are furiously trying to detour the whole conversation saying ‘This conversation is a distraction’. They know this won’t play well even to their own teahaddist surfs (middle class to you and me). So Rove & the MSM is trying to pull the train back on the tracks. Those efforts are only working with their pliant media types (about 80% of the MSM).

We live in interesting times. If only the consequences weren’t so serious, this might all be entertaining, but it is serious and so this can’t be entertainment. We’ll see how well they bury this whole line of questioning between now and the Republican convention.

The thing going through my head right now is that if this is what they’re willing to dribble out BEFORE the convention (when the GOP still has the option of ditching Romney), what are they holding back for after the convention?

Oh, they have that option?

I mean, think of what happens if Romney drops out over (say) an SEC investigation into felony misrepresentation (heh heh). What exactly can the Republicans do? Throw back one of the other losers into the ring after they were spanked out? Seriously?

Romney massive fail on CNN answering the questions tonight. Smiling all the way like the joker, answering “1999” after every question (not being pressed hard mind you). Goes after Obama teams methods, thinks he’s owed an apology. Will only release 2010&11 tax returns. Good luck with that. Seriously, he just repeated what he’s been saying all along I don’t see how this stops the fire.

The entire CNN news staff seems to be trying their best to help Romney put out the fire. David Gergen last night, and Gloria Borger tonight, stating that there seems to be very little substance there to the Bain allegations.

Unless I missed something, everyone’s seems to be missing the point…Stericycle. It won’t matter to the base whether or not he was pro forma in charge or not. If he, or Bain, were profiting from recycling aborted fetuses (sp?), then all bets are off, it won’t matter what Karl Rove’s money machine says.

Someone like Focus on the Family, or that radio preacher guy that got Rmoney’s gay foreign policy adviser canned, just can’t let that slide. And the uproar over this will reach unto the heavens…

Unless I missed something in this sh!tstorm and the Stericycle thing’s been debunked. Or “found to be debunked.”

@cmorenc: And Tom Foreman comparing the whole thing to Swift Boats because, you see, both involved taking aim at your opponent’s strengths by launching attacks for which there is, and I quote, “little or no evidence.” My TV is lucky I was wearing slippers.

For the general it won’t matter. when it comes to any abortion issue IOKOYAR. The base thinks the apocalypse will descend if we elect the Kenyan socialist again. The base are in the can, no matter what comes out about Romney.

The only people at play here are the soft-headed middle, who don’t believe in anything and barely pay attention to anything unless it is everywhere. They are somewhat leery or a plutocrat, but they’re also somewhat racist when you get down to it.

First of all, I should preface this by saying I live in OK, and I may think it’s a big deal cause I’m surrounded w. people that a) hate Obama, and b) hate abortion even more.

Even if it doesn’t stick, according to Rush/Beck or Murdoch, it’s gonnin matter to the Xian base.

If played right, this could be a classic wedge issue…”Which moral code is more important to you? Unfettered capitalism, which says that making a buck is the ONLY thing that matters? Or an innocent unborn child?”

I’m not hopeful that there is anything heavy here. It might dampen turnout from hard-core abortion zealots, but if they were able to look past his cult and actually vote for the Mormon against the Christian candidate, they can look past this.